Engineering leader · Curious human

Marcel Huss-Nielsen

I build strong teams. With people at the heart.

I'm Marcel. An engineering leader with technical depth, a positive outlook and a pragmatic approach to helping people, products and organisations succeed.

Portrait of Marcel Huss-Nielsen
Marcel Huss-Nielsen · Leader & human
20+years in software
8+years in engineering leadership
60+people in organisations I've led
Me as a leader

Technical curiosity. Human leadership.

I have more than 20 years of experience in software development and over 8 years in engineering leadership. My journey has taken me from frontend development and architecture to leading leaders and engineering organisations with more than 60 people.

At Whimsical, Planday and Trustpilot, I have worked on product development, career frameworks, hiring and organisational design. I enjoy connecting people, technology and business — and turning complex challenges into practical next steps.

My approach is positive and pragmatic. I believe in clear expectations, good communication and a safe environment where ambition and being human can coexist.

What I bring

How I create value

I connect people’s development, organisational direction and product opportunities.

01 /

People & leadership

Coaching, meaningful one-to-ones and developing both leaders and specialists.

02 /

Organisations that scale

Career frameworks, hiring and clear ownership across local, remote and distributed teams.

03 /

Product & technology

Product discovery, data, AI and technical understanding that connect priorities with delivery.

My leadership philosophy

Strong teams start with people.

I believe in clear expectations, honest conversations and a safe environment where people can grow and take ownership.

My role is to set direction, create space and help others succeed.

Explore my approach to leadership →
Leadership in practice

Three practical cases

Actions I have led.
Experience I carry forward.
Whimsical 2022 – 2026

Strong capabilities. Data with direction.

As Director of Engineering, I worked on the core product, the data platform and the development of a strong engineering culture.

Three initiatives and results
  1. Developing senior engineers

    Led multiple growth and skills-development initiatives focused on helping engineers improve their capabilities.

  2. Data-informed prioritisation

    Led the data team, maintained an up-to-date data pipeline and supported an internal, metrics-driven approach to prioritising the right work.

  3. A safe and engaging work environment

    Worked to create an environment with room for ambition, learning and enjoyment at work.

Documented result

90–95% employee satisfaction in my organisation.

Actions and results are based on my CV.
Planday 2020 – 2022

Engineering organised for growth.

As Director and later VP of Engineering, I worked on helping leadership, the organisation and product teams operate at greater scale.

Three initiatives and results
  1. Clear career and growth frameworks

    Introduced a structured growth framework for tech leads and developers, and a management career framework adopted across four managers.

  2. An organisation with clearer ownership

    Implemented an engineering reorganisation focused on working at scale and began introducing a full-service ownership model across teams.

  3. More structured hiring

    Revised engineering recruitment, interview structure and agendas to create a clearer shared hiring format.

Organisational responsibility

Day-to-day leadership of an engineering department with 60+ people.

Actions and organisational responsibility are based on my CV.
Trustpilot 2017 – 2020

Shared frameworks, better learning and practical progress.

As Engineering Manager, I worked on developing people and delivering practical improvements across product and engineering teams.

Three initiatives and results
  1. A career path for engineering leaders

    Co-created an engineering management career framework with a fellow manager, covering five key areas of responsibility and clearly defined levels.

  2. Learning across teams

    Created Engineering Shuffle, allowing engineers to join other teams for a defined period with explicit learning benefits.

  3. A design system with tangible progress

    Steered and facilitated the creation of a consumer design system and its pattern library.

Documented result

Design system and pattern library established in three months in 2020.

Actions and timeframe are based on my CV.
What I stand for

My approach to leadership

Clear direction.
Room for people.
01
People & leadership

I make room for growth.

Clear expectations. Honest conversations. Opportunities to grow.

I see leadership as a responsibility to help others succeed. That takes both clear direction and room for people to develop in different ways.

At Trustpilot and Planday, I worked on career frameworks for developers, tech leads and engineering managers. I also developed the structure of one-to-ones and worked with coaching and skills development.

I use these frameworks as a shared language for responsibilities, expectations and next steps. My approach is positive and pragmatic: listen, create clarity and follow through.

02
Organisation & scaling

I make growth practical.

Structure should make work easier — and ownership clearer.

I have led engineering organisations with more than 60 people and worked with local, remote and distributed teams across countries.

At Planday, organisational design, hiring and developing leaders were central to my work. I have led specialists, tech leads and engineering managers, and helped build an organisation that could operate at greater scale.

For me, growth means more than adding people. It means clear responsibilities, strong leaders and collaboration that connects a team's everyday work with product goals.

03
Product & technology

I connect technology with direction.

Technical understanding, product insight and data should support good decisions.

My background in software development and frontend architecture gives me a practical understanding of the work I lead. I'm curious about technology and how it can create value for people.

At Whimsical, I worked closely with product decisions, the data platform and AI transformation. At Planday, my work included product discovery and making data a more central part of the organisation.

I combine technical understanding with an agile approach, measurement and dialogue. The aim is to prioritise the right work and connect insight with action.

Selected experience

From code to leadership

2022 – present

Whimsical

Director of Engineering

Leading senior engineers and the data team. Strategy, skills development, product decisions and AI transformation.

2020 – 2022

Planday

VP / Director of Engineering

Scaling engineering, leading engineering managers and tech leads, and developing career frameworks and hiring processes.

2014 – 2020

Trustpilot

Engineering Manager · Tech Lead · Front-end Architect

Product teams, frontend architecture, performance and collaboration. Leadership frameworks, coaching and interview processes.

2005 – 2014

Trustpilot · QXL · De Gule Sider

Front-end developer

The technical foundation: years of hands-on experience in frontend and software development.

Me as a person

More than my job title.

I bring a smile and a positive outlook to work and everyday life. I stay calm under pressure, communicate directly and approach problems objectively and diplomatically.

My family is an important part of my life: my wife and our two boys. I also have a competitive side that comes out through gaming and sport.

Photography, science and astronomy make room for a different kind of curiosity. Some nights you'll find me with my telescope, trying to capture the Milky Way or objects far out in space.

Outside work, you'll often find me gaming, enjoying sport or holding a camera. I'm also fascinated by astronomy and photographing the night sky.
My next chapter

Roles I'm interested in

I’m interested in roles where I can help people grow, give teams clear direction and build engineering organisations that deliver meaningful products.

Engineering Management

At Trustpilot, I managed multiple product engineering teams with 8–12 direct reports. I combined hands-on technical understanding with coaching, structured 1:1s and support for engineers’ development.

I helped build the engineering management career ladder, improved hiring processes and created Engineering Shuffle to encourage learning across teams. I bring that experience to roles focused on developing people and helping teams succeed.

Director

As Director of Engineering at Planday, I was the day-to-day leader of a department of more than 60 people, with line management responsibility for 13 Tech Leads and three Architects. I supported organisational scaling, hiring and clearer career frameworks.

At Whimsical, I led 13 senior engineers and a team of three data engineers, working on strategy, skills development, product decisions and data-informed prioritisation. My organisation achieved 90–95% employee satisfaction.

VP

As VP of Engineering at Planday, I led five Engineering Managers, the QA department and the Polish branch of eight engineers. My responsibilities included planning engineering’s current and future focus, education, partnerships and recruitment.

I worked closely with product areas and teams on day-to-day operations. I bring experience connecting engineering strategy with practical execution, building leadership capacity and supporting a distributed organisation.

Recommendations

Words from people I've worked with.

Leadership and collaboration are best described by the people who experience them. You can read my colleagues' recommendations on LinkedIn.

Read my recommendations on LinkedIn ↗
Contact

Let's have a good conversation.

Would you like to exchange perspectives on engineering leadership, product teams or technology? You're welcome to get in touch.